Helping consumers make informed choices: That’s the goal of a Web site, safefruitsandveggies.com, from the Watsonville, Ca.-based Alliance for Food and Farming, a non-profit organization made up of organic and conventional farmers.The site is a science-based project providing consumers with research around the safety of fresh produce and touches on subjects such as washing produce, pesticide use, health and nutrition, safety standards and more. “The site was created because we couldn’t allow our products, which are all safe and healthy and wholesome and we all should be consuming more, to be inaccurately disparaged by groups such as the Environmental Working Group with its Dirty Dozen list,” says Teresa Thorne of the Alliance. (The EWG’s annual Dirty Dozen list is a list of fresh produce which they say has the most pesticides on it. Conversely, the EWG also does produce the Clean 15 or the 15 types of produce with the least amount of pesticides.)
Just the facts
The Alliance wanted the site to be a science-based source of information to help guide consumers’ shopping choices. “So at the end of the day, whether they choose organic or conventional, they know they can choose either or choose both because both are very safe and convenient,” says Thorne. “It allows consumers to choose food based on good information versus scary, inaccurate information.”
Encouraging consumers to consume
In addition, the Alliance also hopes to support the consumption of fresh produce via its site. “We see from even the most recent peer-reviewed study from Nutrition Today, a study interviewing 500 low-income consumers who basically stated that, when they’re exposed to messaging like the EWG’s, they’re more likely to not buy any produce, organic or conventional,” says Thorne. “It dissuades them from eating fresh produce.”
That’s not to say consumers aren’t worried about pesticides and other chemical used in farming. “We see from regular consumer research that there continues to be a high level of concern among consumers about the safety of their produce,” says Thorne. “But once they’re provided the science-based factual information, they are reassured and walk away saying we’re going to eat more produce.”
For more information:
Teresa Thorne
Alliance for Food and Farming
Tel: +1 831-786-1666
tthorne@foodandfarming.info
http://www.foodandfarming.info/